The 5-Pillar ShineSparkL Marketing Education for Photographers System
In Eastern philosophy, there are 5 koshas, or layers to our humanity: Body, Mind, Energy, Wisdom and Intuition or Bliss. They range from the most physical to the most ethereal. We are aware of and maintain the most control over our body and mind. Energy is a half/half one, where our energy can be affected by our decisions in body and mind, but also affected by the unseen or untapped layers that lie within. Wisdom and Intuition are less tangible and difficult for us to access, but once in a while we tap into them - accidentally or by activities such as meditation or getting “in the zone.” Unity or balance of all 5 koshas is the path to discover your true essence - a path to self-realization and actualization.
I learned about the koshas while listening to the book “Inner Engineering” by Sadhguru. I had an epiphany that all 5 koshas relate to our business. If we humans contain these layers, then this same philosophy can be extended to anything we do. The ShineSparkL 5-pillar marketing system was born. Unity or steadiness in our 5 pillars is a path to discover the true essence of our business and the realization of our dreams. As I developed this idea further, it dawned on me why so many of us struggle. We focus on one dimension - for example marketing - and then we wonder why the needle doesn’t move. Once we realize that there are 4 other dimensions (or pillars) that affect that one, and when we align those, magic starts to happen. This is the secret to unlocking all that has been blocked for you. Let me describe a few scenarios:
A client is giving red flags but you accept them because you need the money. It turns into a negative experience where it eats your time and the money to fix things. This is ignoring INTUITION.
You have debilitating imposter syndrome that nags at you every time you consider raising your prices. You stay small to keep the imposter at bay but you aren’t making any money and the dream is drifting away. This is MINDSET that keeps your other efforts hostage.
You take on a set of marathon sessions to try to get your name out there only to burn yourself out and not be able to deliver your best work - everything is a rush to fulfill and you’re overwhelmed. Clients are getting irritated and threatening bad reviews. This is BODY not being accounted for in the business.
Did the light come on for you? There are times where we need to focus on one area - but they key is to never forget that the other areas are interdependent and there is always a ripple effect. I can teach you solid and tried-and-true marketing concepts, but if your mindset isn’t right, then you’ll struggle with implementation. When your intuition isn’t engaged, you won’t know when you need to adjust. When your body is tired, you’ll abandon and go binge-watch your favourite series while your energy is riddled with guilt that you didn’t stick with it.
When you adopt a holistic approach of all 5 pillars, you have complete approach to marketing, brand and business! You are on your way to a ShineSparkL biz!
Learn marketing and business in an entirely new way - as your life’s work rather than a work/ life split
Why do we often forget ourselves in the whole equation of our photography business? Without us, there is no photography business! We are the ones out there creating amazing imagery for our clients to love and then sitting tirelessly at the computer refining something beautiful and memorable. You give it your all. You need grace, love and strength so that you can go out and do it again tomorrow. This pillar refers to:
Self-Care/ Wellness
Image
Personal Connections
Business Environment and Equipment
This pillar can also be associated with the sense of touch, tangible things in our lives.
More than any other pillar, mindset is the great annihilator of the Wisdom pillar.
Until you actually decide to dig into mindset and your psychology, you may not even know what you don’t know. That mystery can undermine every.single.effort we try to make. When we aren’t even aware of this sabotage, we can’t correct it. Challenge yourself to challenge the thoughts that come up for you and decide on a different mindset from one that’s been silently operating and undermining behind the scenes. This pillar also looks at mindset and psychology and how it influences buyer behaviour; and it does so more than money. This pillar refers to:
Removing limiting beliefs
Confidence and empowerment
Business Approach and Model
Consumer Psychology/ Price & Sales Strategies
This pillar can also be associated with the sense of hearing - as in the harmful tapes we play in our heads or listening for the messages we need to hear.
Defining brand can feel like trying to hold an ocean wave. Is it a logo, is it how people talk about you, is it your website design, is it your personality? How on earth do you tackle this nebulous concept? I’ve hit on a definition that may light your bulb. Your brand is the energy that you wrap your business in. EVERY photography business is finding clients, taking money, photographing, delivering photographs. We all do it. The energy wrapper is what differentiates your business from the one down the street — like my SparkL-festo says — the fizz in the bizz. It’s like clothing on your body. We all have bodies, but rarely do we dress the same. Our unique choice of clothing make us different from everyone else, reflecting our own energy. Defining our business energy wrapper attracts or repels others, and a successful brand does both of these things at the same time. This pillar refers to:
Business Image
Business promises
Aesthetic & Design
Presence
This pillar can also be associated with the sense of taste, as in the flavour our brand imparts.
You don’t set up a business like a battleground or fortress and defend it (remember, we are against that here at ShineSparkL); fending off unreasonable clients, bad reviews and cheap competitors or imitators.
Business is service. You have a gift, and you exchange that gift in the currency that the world runs on. Clients are not enemies waiting to happen, even if client relations can be challenging at times. Clients are the beautiful and amazing people who help your dreams, because you fulfill theirs. Operating from this place of love and service, focussing on excellence instead of defense, integrity instead of ‘down and dirty’, will get you on track for success. No combat skills needed :) This pillar refers to:
Business and Marketing plans
Policies and processes
Systems and automations
Education
This pillar can also be associated with the sense of smell, as in the sweet smell of success or avoiding any whiff of wrongdoing when it comes to business practice.
Business can often feel like a grind, and we’ve all heard the adage of working on your business instead of in your business. It’s true. If we’re swimming underwater and don’t come up for air, we can’t take a breath or see where we are, to know if we’re on course. Our noisy world applauds doing more relentlessly, but have you ever pushed to solve a problem only for it to get further away, becoming increasingly frustrated? And then you finally walk away and magically the answer pops into your head?
We fight the urge (again, let’s stop doing that!) to slow down and let a deeper, knowing power within us give us some counsel, because we mistake that kind of downtime for being lazy and unproductive. We know our hearts beat and our lungs breathe not by our own accord. The magic that does that for us is good at what it does, without our conscious input! Why are we so dismissive to believe that the same magic is there to give our brains some guidance? The brain is the doer, but the idea-maker and magician is your intuition. It’s where all your dreams are born and live. And that’s probably by design; our operating brains are influenced by mindset way too much to be accurate or to hold such precious, tender things that hold the key to our destiny.
Intuition comes from a protected place, a place unaffected by that daily grind our operating brains are constantly in, but available whenever we tune in, to receive our important ideas and direction which we then assign our brains to carry out. This pillar refers to:
Vision and Dreamwork
Creativity and Photography
Gut feelings/ aha’s, insights
Epiphanies
This pillar can also be associated with the sense of seeing, as in the third eye.
I hope that the 5-pillar ShineSparkL approach excites you as much as it does me! Maybe this is the different education you’ve been looking for, and the holistic and balanced approach makes sense. It’s not lost on me that the 5 pillars can also be associated with our 5 senses that also work together within us, that allow us to interact in the world. I believe this to be a path for our success that is aligned with our higher purpose. Since I discovered and implemented this system, I have personally made so many gains in my own journey, including the re-branding and launching of ShineSparkL which I’m so proud of to share with you. I could have said the photography education market is saturated, that there’s no room, but there are billions of stars in the sky and there is room for all of them and they all have their own sparkle. That’s an example of my own changed mindset and this site is here now! I hope this inspires you on your own journey!